Scrubland:

We live in a rented house owned by the local estate (farming & shooting estate) and are in a lovely location with woods at the bottom of the garden and a patch of scrubland to the right. It is this land that we have earmarked for our veg patch, more chickens and perhaps pigs (the pigs might just be a dream).

But before we could do anything, it had to be cleared. We managed to get hold of a very old strimmer which required a bit of work on the engine to get it running, but now works a treat. The cutting blade made short work of the 15 years of brambles and bracken that had taken over this area. And after a few weekends of work, and one huge bonfire. We can now see what we are doing.

We found all manner of treasures and rubbish buried. The best items were a lovely Butler sink and some old bottles. The not so fun 'treasures' were miles of tatty rusting chicken wire, lino and assorted trash. The after picture shows you how it looks now. The tree next to the plastic bin is a very sick looking pear, I think the deer have had a go as the bark is stripped off down one side. Thats one thing we have to account for here, is the deer. Every winter they come out of the woods and take a liking to our tender plants. It's lovely to see them, and even funny watching one chase the cat (she's called Pushka, seems it's Russian for Cannon) accross the front lawn last week. But not so funny when they start munching on my food.